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97 GTI 720 Doesn't Rev Up

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IDoSeaDoo

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Hey guys. So here's my story on this one. Last year, I rescued this 97 GTI from some PA rednecks who took it to some dumbass mechanic who "installed" an sbt engine and immideately seized it by running it without oil. I got the engine in a box, and assembled it with a new top end. Everything looked good, and the ski ran most of the season. Then, in Oct. or so, it suddenly seized as I was riding on the lake.

That year, I found that a bolt had worked itself out of the mag cover, and allowed a few quarts of water in there. Everything was corroded all to hell, so I just winterized it, and left it alone to focus on my boat project.

This year, I ripped the motor apart and found that the two front most crank bearings were totally rusted. Also, the flywheel and stator were rusted pretty badly as well. Everything else seemed fine. I replaced the bearings and threw a pair of new rings on. Got 142 and 150psi compression, sand-blasted and painted the flywheel, and pulled a seemingly identical stator off my 587 and put it on. Now the stator had a different connection from the GTI, so I cut and crimped the 4 wires on there. Everything looked good, it would start right up in the driveway (and water), so went for break in. During breakin, the motor felt really hot, though I could put my hand on it for at least a few seconds. More troubling was that it wouldn't rev past about 4-5k rpm (no tach). If I open it up, the rpms slooooowly climbs up, but if I open the throttle too wide, it just falls on its face. I opened the LSA from 1-1.5 and that didn't change anything. I checked, HSA and it was out 1 turn. I opened it another turn to no effect. Closing it seemed to make it worse, so I just stopped there and went back to the dock. I didn't run it long enough to get any sort of indicator of the plugs (they were just wet, but the porcelain already turned dark). It would start up and idle, but not go past half throttle. In fact, max RPM was achieved at 3/4 throttle (not spinning very fast) and past that it would just die. Pulling choke instantly kills it.

I took it home and opened the carb to find that it was clean. The outside is chalky from salt corrosion from the summer before, but inside it was nice and clean. The jets are the correct size and popoff was 32-35psi. New base gasket, and teh block was tight, no air leaks when I sprayed with soapy water while under pressure.

What could this be? Are the 587-720 stators compatible? They looked totally identical.
 
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Ok, figured it out. Turns out it was a combination of things. Sheesh!

1. Most important of all the issues was the Rotary valve timing. IDK how, but it was off by like 2-3 teeth. That results in like a 20 degree offset. I'm still puzzled how that got by me.

2. This one was more subtle. The choke cable is kinked somewhere and therefore sticks out about 30% when it snaps back. You could barely tell by looking at, but I touched it and it went in. Ski ran muuuuuch better after that.

3. The last culprit too was subtle: My fuel selector knob was stripped out. I'm not sure when/how this happened, but you can turn it 360, no problem. I think when I turned the fuel on, it only turned PARTIALLY on. This explains why i could idle around all day, but when I went to rev up, it stumbled and backfired. I turned it a bunch of times in the direction of ON and was pretty sure that it was fully activated, but that will be getting replaced here shortly.

I rode around with an IR thermometer today, and tested the surface temperatures of the block. The head and upper part of the front cylinder was around 115-135F, the lower you go, the hotter it got. The hottest point was right at the seam between the jug and the crank case measuring at 165F. I figured that was okay. The exhaust was just warm to the touch.

I rode around and did the proper break in procedure. I'm a bit troubled by how the ski shudders at low rpm. Also, there appears no difference between 3/4 throttle and full throttle. Maybe 1-200 rpm MAYBE. Barely anything noticeable in the power. I haven't tested the max RPM at WOT, as I only brought it up to WOT for a split second (a no-no during the break-in procedure), but the engine takes on this slight vibration at the higher RPMs.

I wonder if a bent driveshaft could cause this... I don't think it was bent, but then again I didn't check. If it was bent, could the vibration come and go at different RPM? Can vibrations in any way be related to carb performance?
 
Shuttering could be a bent rod. remove *plugs, pencil in each, mark at TDC and compare. Anything unbalanced = shake.
Fuel valve, the plastic cap might be cracked. Pik out the center top rubber and remove the #2 Phillips screw, pull cap off.


Bills86e
 
Damn, a bent rod would certainly ruin my day. There is about a 8-10psi difference in compression between teh cylinders, and they both have brand new rings with perfect ring-end gap... that COULD be it. Guess I'll try the pencil trick tomorrow. Are 720's pretty smooth otherwise?
 
So after breaking the ski in, I changed the crusty old plugs and put in a set of fresh ones, and what do you know? Most of the vibration is gone. It still has a very slight vibration at WOT, but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. It's very mild.

One thing I do wonder though is how many RPM am I supposed to be pulling? I can only achieve around 6700. I thought this was a 7k engine. I checked the plugs after a looooong WOT plug chop, like a mile or two, and the plugs were a nice tan brown. It was on the lighter side of brown, so I opened the high needle a bit more, but that seemed to make it a bit worse. I'm going to leave it there just to be safe, but this carb is tuned quite a bit outside the 1997 manual spec. I have the high out like 1 full turn or maybe 1.5 (forgot now). Someone on seadoo source listed this ski to be 1.5 turns out on the HSA http://www.seadoosource.com/carbreference.html and I think they're right. It's a wonder that the manual is so wrong here...
This is the single carb model and she starts right up and revs without hesitation.
 
First a mile or two is a long time to be running WOT straight.
Second the 720 is not the smoothest engine and it doesn't have a balancer like the 787 and 951. THey shake and vibrate a lot at idle too.
 
Really? How long does it take to do a plug chop? Also I read a very interesting post by Bill O'Neal on PWC today saying that 6700 rpm is the worst rpm for this engine. They have a natural vibration at this rpm which is very destructive to the motor. I am thinking of repitching the prop, but I usually don't ride wot, and if I repitch it, I might put my preferred speed right at that 6700 rpm mark. What to do...
 
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